You moved to Lantau in 2020. How did you come across the buffalo?
They’re treasured members of the community. They’re really unique, but there was this one lady who looked after them. She decided that she wanted to look after them and I kept seeing her. I would see her sometimes on the beach, sometimes on the side of a mountain or in the wetland, always surrounded by these buffalo. And I was like, ‘Who is this lady?’ It’s incredible. It’s like, I can’t help myself. Literally, on one jog as I was going up the hill to my house, I almost ran into her. And so I was like, ‘OK, the universe is really talking to me. I gotta say something.’ So I said, ‘I’m sorry. I’ve seen you around. Would you mind if I follow you around with a camera for a day or two?’ And she thought I was a real weirdo. But she’s like, ‘Yeah, OK, no problem,’ and really friendly.
When did you realize you had a story?
The next day, I’m in the car with her, seeing what she’s doing. I thought maybe I’d film her for a couple days, I’d have some interesting footage and I’d cut it together as a little personal two-minute video. But then the more time I spent with her, and as I started to try to understand where the buffalo came from, and kind of what their situation is now, I really felt that it was a really deep story there. Not just the site, of course, the beautiful story of this fascinating woman, her connection to these animals, but also to understand they’re threatened. Their habitat is disappearing. There’s the potential for massive transformation of that island. They’re directly in the crosshairs of that.
Do you feel like you’ve learned anything from the last five years?
More than anything, I just fell in love with her and the animals. It taught me a lot. I went from fearing them to loving them. I just saw them in a totally different light, in the sense that I saw them as these kind of anonymous, beautiful creatures. But they’re alive like us and they have personalities. They each have favorite foods, and so that was like, ‘Wow. I have to tell that.’ And to watch her care for them every day. She’s in her 70s, and she does this every single day, and it’s really hard. She doesn’t do it for money.
How important is a grant like this for you?
It’s huge. It’s so hard to do independent film and it’s hard to have the money and time. I put so much time into this. I’m honored by the recognition. It’s an incredible group of filmmakers. Richard Linklater started the Austin Film Study. There’s another guy that’s an absolute hero of mine. It’s nice to be seen.
What do you want audiences to take away?
I just hope they see the beautiful thing that I saw. Yeah, that’s it. It’s really that simple. And I hope that just because I learned something, I hope that they learned something new and interesting. It’s that simple something: learn something new and interesting.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.